Pages

4.30.2015

It's here! The week before the One Room Challenge reveal. So much progress was made this week, and it now looks like an actual room! If you need a reminder where we started with this project, you can check out these posts.

This week I spray painted our old shelf brackets gold to go with our new hardware. This was an impromptu decision, and I'm so glad I did it!

While we were tiling we realized we were going to have to bring forward our outlets and washing machine outlet box to accommodate the height of the tiles. We fixed the washing machine outlet ourselves, but we're going to bring in our electrician to fix the dryer outlet. We tried moving it ourselves, but it wasn't budging, and since 220V of electricity is nothing to mess with, we're going to let our electrician handle this one. Finally, when the new washing machine outlet box was installed, we had no intentions of tiling so it was set flush with the wall. In order to get the tile under the cover we would have had to rip out the drywall and reset the box. This would have been a lot of work, so we made the decision to tile around it and put some trim around the box to make it look more finished (we'll be installing this week).

Drilling into our newly tiled wall to place our shelf was a bit nerve-racking, because short of ripping out the tile, there is no going back if you make a mistake! Thankfully we got it in with no problems. Also, this is bit of a side note, but if you haven't tried the limited edition peony scent from Mrs. Meyers you have to try it! I found mine at Target, but they can also be purchased through the Mrs. Meyers website. I'm so obsessed with the scent that I stocked up on enough to last me until next season!

All of the accessories (except for the baskets) arrived this week and are waiting for their install!

Finally, these brushed brass beauties will be used on all of the cabinets. We have these same handles in chrome in our kitchen, so after not finding anything else I liked, I decided on these to tie in with the rest of the house.

Here is a final recap of our to-do list:

Install new flooring

Install baseboards

Possibly install crown molding This is happening, but not before the reveal. We have other obligations this weekend and next week that will be preventing us from having time to install this.

Install new cabinetry

Paint interior door and water heater closet door

Replace water heater closet door hardware

Place proper venting on water heater closet door

Install cabinetry hardware

Install marble countertop

Install backsplash

New light fixture

Finish painting walls and ceiling

Install solar tube lighting for natural light. We have settled on a skylight, but installation will not happen before next week. I'm so excited about this, because getting natural light in here will completely change the space!

New rug, art, baskets, and hooks The baskets may not make it in time for the reveal, but I have a plan B.

This week there wasn't a lot of visual progress, but there was still a lot completed. We changed our minds for the third time, but we have finalized our backsplash to this oversized beveled subway tile. We like this option better than the plain subway tile we had originally planned to use since it will bring some more texture into the space. This is going up this weekend once our countertops get installed.

Speaking of countertops, after searching all over Dallas our fabricator was able to get this carrara marble remnant for us! They measured yesterday, and we're on the schedule for installation today!

Here is a close up of the floor tile. It was very affordable, and I really love its linen texture. We used a warm gray grout that we will also be using on the subway tile backsplash.

My Hicks pendant arrived this week and we'll be installing her this weekend!

I also got our water heater closet door painted and properly vented. I debated about painting the vent the same color as the door, but I don't have a paint sprayer and I was worried it would look sloppy with a brush. I left it white because no one will ever see this door unless they're in the laundry room with the door shut (which will never happen). We're still waiting on the matching lever to arrive, so we have a temporary knob on here for now.

To recap, here is what we have left to complete:

Install new flooring

Install baseboards

Possibly install crown molding This might be back in the mix due to some adjustments - I need to make my mind up on this ASAP!

Install new cabinetry

Paint interior door and water heater closet door

Replace water heater closet door hardware - ordered!

Place proper venting on water heater closet door

Install cabinetry hardware - ordered and on it's way!

Install marble countertop - getting installed today!

Install backsplash - installing this weekend

New light fixture - installing this weekend

Finish painting walls and ceiling

Install solar tube lighting for natural light. We got a quote to add in a window. We're still deciding between a skylight and a window. Either way, there is no way we'll have this finished in time for the reveal :(

New rug, art, baskets, and hooks - All ordered and all on their way to me!

By next week everything should be installed and ready to be photographed for the big reveal in two weeks! You can check out the rest of the linking participant's progress here.

4.17.2015

So, my laundry room design has already changed since yesterday's post! After doing some measuring I confirmed that the light fixture I had my eye on definitely wouldn't fit without moving the electrical. I went on an extensive search for something that wouldn't interfere with the cabinet door swing and just as I was ready to give up and convert to recessed lighting it hit me - the Visual Comfort Hicks Pendant! I have wanted to use this for years, but I never had the right place for it. The small pendant measures in at 8.5" wide, which is the exact measurement that we need! To solidify the deal, Horchow had them in stock and 30% off, so this baby is on its way to me!

Since I splurged a little on the light fixture, I had to re-evaluate my art selection. The paintings I had originally chosen were on the small side, which meant I would need to buy two to make them work in our long room. I found this round mirror for one of my recent e-design projects, and it's just the right size and style for this room. I lucked out and also scored this on major sale, so I officially have all of the accessories purchased and finalized. Now I'm starting to get excited to see it all come together!

4.16.2015

Here is a look at some of the finishing touches that I plan to add to our laundry room. I'm going for a modern coastal sort of vibe in here, and I think this artwork by Susie Bettenhausen is total perfection for this space.

Now that you've seen the pretty stuff, let me show you the not so pretty stuff (I apologize for the unedited iphone photos, but I'm just keeping it real in this post). Last year our contractor put in our new dryer venting, but somehow felt it was ok to leave us with this mess.

Yes, this was his "high quality" work that we were promised. No, I would never, ever recommend him even to my worst enemy. If you live in Dallas and want to know who not to hire, shoot me an e-mail. Luckily (or not so luckily), I had already learned how to do some serious drywall repair due to another issue he left us with, so fixing this was fairly easy.

My non-contractor work far exceeds anything he was able to give us!

Last Thursday we took out our old flooring and prepped for the new floor.

We started tiling on Friday night, and surprised ourselves by getting the floors tiled and grouted by early Sunday evening, allowing us to have a little bit of time to relax over the weekend.

We put in the new cabinets on Monday and got the door painted and hung by Monday night.

This floor-to-ceiling cabinet is my organizational dream. It holds all of my cleaning supplies perfectly.

We will lower the shelf above the washer and dryer once we tile the backsplash, which we've decided to extend along the back wall (thank you for your input last week!). It looks a little plain now, but once the countertops, backsplash, new hardware, and accessories are installed, it will add much needed texture.

I'm still on the fence about my light fixture situation. The cabinet doors clear our current light by less than 1/2", which makes me a little nervous about my light fixture choice. Right now, moving it isn't an option because we just recently had the walls and ceiling skim coated and I really don't want to mess with repairing the ceiling myself. If the light fixture I chose doesn't work, my plans are to use it in our hallway and convert this to recessed lighting for now. Stay tuned for how this pans out!

Here is what we have left to finish:

Install new flooring

Install baseboards - These are cut and ready to be painted!

Possibly install crown molding This is now out due to the height of the cabinets.

Install new cabinetry

Paint interior door and water heater closet door

Replace water heater closet door hardware

Place proper venting on water heater closet door

Install cabinetry hardware

Install marble countertop

Install backsplash

New light fixture

Finish painting walls and ceiling

Install solar tube lighting for natural light. After looking at the Solatube lighting this weekend I found that I was not a fan of the fluorescent looking light the tubes gave off. We're getting all of our windows replaced in a couple of weeks, so we're going to talk to them about how much it would be to add a completely new window into the space.

New rug, art, baskets, and hooks

As always, don't forget to check out the rest of the linking participants to see the progress they've made, and come back next week when we plan to have baseboards installed, new countertops picked out, and the backsplash started!

4.13.2015

You may remember back in May when I shared a small update on this room after we put in new flooring. We didn't touch it for almost a year and we never, ever went in here because it had no function. I had always planned for this extra bedroom in our house to be used for Charlie's music/"man" room (you can see the beginning of my plans for this room in this post and this post). I also wanted it to function as a secondary guest room because we occasionally have extra visitors and I feel awful when they have to sleep on an inflatable mattress.

I was convinced I wanted to paint this room a dark shade of green, but I could never get Charlie on board. I let him pick out the paint color, and it totally surprised me that he picked this airy shade of mint green. It is called Breath of Spring by Behr. At first I really wasn't sure about it because I thought it made the room look like a nursery, but after putting everything in the room it's definitely growing on me. We also replaced the outdated ceiling fan with this gold semi-flush light by Minka Lavery.

You may have seen my instagram post about this little ottoman that I found last week on a HomeGoods run. I envisioned using it as a movable ottoman/small coffee table for the sofa bed, but the proportions were all wrong. I'm saving it for when we upgrade to a sleeper sofa, and for now I'm using it as a temporary side table for our Eames look-alike chair, which was one of the first (and one of my favorite) purchases we made for this house!

This sofa bed is very temporary, and is only here to keep our extra guests from having to sleep on the floor. Unfortunately the color is much more blue than it appeared online, so it sort of clashes with everything. Since we're only keeping it for a short time I refuse to buy things to make it work, so right now I'm using things that don't necessarily "go" with it, but I plan to keep long term. I'm kind of mad at myself for buying it in the first place, but for now I'll just have to deal with it making everything look a little off.

I created a small whiskey and scotch bar in this corner, complete with one of my favorite prints from the local Dallas business, Read Between the Lines.

This dresser functions perfectly as a mid-century inspired media console, and right now you can find it for a total steal on clearance! Also, in real life these photos aren't hanging as close to the TV as they appear in this picture, but I can definitely see that they need to be spread out a few inches. I hung these up by myself one night when I couldn't sleep and didn't have an extra set of eyes to help!

The part of the room that you don't see in these pictures are the 80's mirrored closet doors and an unpainted interior door. I've ordered the new closet doors, and once they're painted and installed I'll share with you what a difference it makes!

4.09.2015

Welcome back for week two of the One Room Challenge! I don't feel like we got much done this week, only because much of the progress that has happened can't be seen. We purchased our cabinets and backsplash, but didn't get to install the flooring like I had planned. After a lot of research on the subject, I had a strong suspicion that our original 1970's vinyl sheet flooring might contain asbestos, so to be extra safe we sent it off to a lab to be tested. We got the results back last night and we're all clear, so this means the old flooring gets ripped up this evening and we'll start tiling tomorrow!

After we purchased our cabinets we were excited that we managed to fit them all in my car, but it meant there was nowhere left for Charlie to sit! I had him drive and was able to squeeze myself into a small space in the back. Luckily we didn't have to go too far!

Last week I promised to share the finishes and accessories that we plan to use. Since it's such a small space I had originally planned to go with some funky, expensive tile, but ultimately decided that it wouldn't fit in with the updates we've already done to the rest of the house. I've decided to keep it consistent and use subway tile like we did in our kitchen and bath remodels. This flooring doesn't look like much online, but in real life it has a linen look and texture to it that makes it perfect to use in the laundry room. We plan to go check out countertops this weekend as well. I had planned to go with carrara marble, but there is a calacatta slab that I have my eye on, so stayed tuned for our decision!

Hardware for the cabinetry is still up for debate, but you can see some styles that I'm eyeing on my One Room Challenge Pinterest board. I'm also still debating on whether I want to continue the subway tile along the wall behind the washer and dryer, or cut it off at the end of the cabinets. Since we're going with a cheaper tile I feel like this could make it feel a little more high end. Thoughts on this?

Make sure to check out the rest of the One Room Challenge linking participants, and come back next week when we will hopefully have a completely transformed space. Our goal is to have flooring, baseboards, and cabinets in by next week, and don't forget you can follow along with our progress on Instagram!

4.02.2015

Hello! I'm so glad you're joining me for the One Room Challenge! This is my first time participating, and it could not have come at a better time. Over the last year Charlie and I have been renovating our 1970's ranch style house, and after we got our laundry room functional, we abandoned it as we went to work on more visible parts of our house. This week I'm sharing the "before" photos as well as sketches to show you what the "after" will look like.

These are the "before" pictures even AFTER I color corrected in Photoshop. The light that was in here cast an awful red glow on everything. It has since been changed so that it doesn't cast the red light, but I have a really fun fixture in mind for this space that I'll be sharing next week!

During our first round of renovations we opened up the wall and took the storage nook out of our garage to make the laundry room larger and to correct a venting issue (see this post for more details).

Sadly, this is the way it has looked for exactly one full year. I'm not even going to sugar coat it and try to make it look more put together, because the truth is this is how it always looks. We put a new shelf above the washer and dryer, installed a new door and hardware, and painted the walls Devine Horizon.

We also replaced all of the plumbing and electrical, capped the gas line, and put up temporary cabinetry. I plan to put in a 90" high cabinet to hold our all of our vacuum cleaners and cleaning supplies - something I'm very excited about since we have very limited closet space in this house!

This door houses our water heater which we eventually want to move to the garage. We would then convert this to a coat closet since it is right next to our garage entry, but that is another project for another day!

We have our flooring purchased and plan to buy our cabinetry this weekend. Once all this happens the fun part starts! I've put together a few sketches to show you what it will look like once it's complete, and I'll share the planned finishes with you next week! This will be the view as you're walking through the door.

This is what it will look like once you're in the laundry room.

This is a view through the wall that shows the entire layout.

Here is a summary of what we plan to do:

Install new flooring

Install baseboards

Possibly install crown molding

Install new cabinetry

Paint interior door and water heater closet door

Replace water heater closet door hardware

Place proper venting on water heater closet door

Install cabinetry hardware

Install marble countertop

Install backsplash

New light fixture

Finish painting walls and ceiling

Install solar tube lighting for natural light

We're really hoping to finish in six weeks, but I just found out the backsplash tile I'm eyeing has a 4-6 week delivery time, so we've got to hit the ground running! Make sure to stop by next Thursday when I'll be sharing our week one progress and all of our selected finishes! Check out the other One Room Challenge linking participants in this post.